Question: What's the role of dissolved oxygen, if any, in our drinking water for our health? Some water treatment guys are saying that distilled water is not good for health—may lead to osteoporosis over a long period of us. Is there any scientific basis for such alarmist statements?

Answer: There's little role of dissolved oxygen in water for drinking beyond its role in reacting with other substances in the water. The importance of oxygen is for breathing and, in water, it typically will come to saturation upon exposure. The taste of water may be slightly altered; and, of course, certain microbes require oxygen, but others don’t. As for osteoporosis, that's a calcium deficit—and, while there's some folklore attached to drinking water with low TDS, the volume of water that people typically ingest would not have an important role whether pure or not. Typical water of 500 ppm TDS or less is 99.9995% pure in terms of minerals. The mineral contribution of water, with or without minerals, to the human body is negligible. Most mineral nutrients come from the food we eat. Supplements can assist you if your diet isn't high enough in the proper minerals. Water won't.